A Desire for Sunscreen
by FireApe
Summary: Now that summer has started, Kurt is eager to finally see his boyfriend shirtless and to perhaps lather him with sunscreen. But Blaine seems resistant to shed his shirt. It never occurs to Kurt that he could be hiding something.


**This was to fulfill a prompt for Mrs. HummelPotter. I promise I'm still working on my other fic, I just needed to write some fluff because Reinvention is so gosh darn angsty (even though there is a healthy dose of angst in this fic as well).**

**I hope you all enjoy! Loves and Hugs to you all!**

* * *

><p>Summertime. This time of the year was often synonymous with fireworks, ice cream, pools, and sleeping until one in the afternoon. For Kurt it meant spending quality time with friends and family, having an extended curfew for shopping dates with his girls, and the occasional splurge on fattening summer treats. This summer was going to be different though. This year he had Blaine. This year he was finally going to experience the summer romance that he had been fantasizing about since he first heard "Summer Nights" from <em>Grease<em>.

Of course, it was hard to go to a beach party in the middle of Ohio since there were absolutely no oceans. The largest body of water was Lake Erie and you didn't swim in that unless you were willing to take the chances of growing a second head. It was gross. So he and his classmates (and his boyfriend!) had to settle on pool parties. And really, those were more preferable than oceans or lakes anyway. There were no live animals in pools and no questionable substances that could turn him into a radioactive mutant.

And to be perfectly honest, Kurt was a little… eager, shall we say, to see Blaine in swim trunks. He would admit it to no one, but he was quite excited to finally see his boyfriend without a shirt on, splashing in the water with all their friends. Kurt would definitely have to make sure Blaine was properly lathered in sunscreen, and of _course _Kurt would be the one to rub it in on those hard-to-reach places on his back. And then Blaine would return the favor and…

Kurt snapped out of it as he pulled into Rachel's driveway, willing himself to ease up on the racy thoughts. He grabbed his bag of essential items (towels, a change of clothes, sunglasses and three bottles of sunscreen) and weaved through the myriad of other cars parked in the driveway. Kurt let himself into the house and was instantly met with a spray of water to the face.

"Puckerman!" he shouted as the mohawked boy ran back through the house with his watergun. Kurt wiped the water out of his eyes and made his way into the kitchen where Mercedes was chatting with Quinn, snacking on grapes and cheese cubes. They both had towels wrapped around their swimsuits. By their wet hair Kurt assumed they had already been in the pool and were just taking a snack break.

"I was gonna warn you, but he's been doing it to everyone," explained Mercedes as she popped a grape into her mouth. "Figured it'd be best to just amuse him."

"Yes, well, his amusement just ruined the absorption of my sunscreen," complained Kurt, grabbing a grape for himself. "For maximum effect, you're supposed to let the sunscreen absorb for thirty minutes before getting wet and I just applied it everywhere but my back fifteen minutes ago. Now I'm going to have to re-do my face and wait longer to get in the pool."

Both girls chuckled at his predicament. "You'd have to wait anyway until you got your back done. Want me to get it for you?" Mercedes offered.

Kurt hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to admit why he was waiting to get the sunscreen on his back.

Quinn smiled knowingly and turned to Mercedes. "He wants _Blaine _to rub sunscreen on his back," she told her, giving Kurt an amused side-long glance. Mercedes gave a smile and a nod. "Ah, I see," she said.

Instead of blushing in embarrassment, Kurt held his chin high. "Is that so wrong of me?"

The blonde just chuckled good-naturedly. "He got here about ten minutes ago, by the way. You better go rescue him before Puck starts torturing him."

Kurt thanked the girls before walking out to the backyard. He was already wearing his swim trunks so he didn't need to change into them. He also had on an old t-shirt so that, when the moment came, he could pull it off in front of his boyfriend. Not that he'd been planning for such a thing, really.

He quickly spotted Blaine sitting by the edge of the pool. He had his legs dangling into the water but he didn't seem to be wearing any sort of swimwear. Instead, the other boy was wearing a pair of shorts and a dark Dalton t-shirt. Maybe he was just waiting on Kurt to get here before he changed.

Smiling, Kurt made his way over to his boyfriend and sat next to him. "Hey, you," he greeted, giving him a hello kiss.

"Hey yourself," answered the dark-haired boy with a wide smile.

"Didn't you bring trunks?" asked Kurt, slipping his own legs into the cool pool water. He waved to Finn as the other boy called to him before jumping off the diving board and making an obnoxious splash. Luckily they were on the other side of the pool and didn't get wet.

"The only ones I have were a bit too small," he admitted with a shrug. "Figured I'd just chill on the side and watch the rest of you make fools of yourselves," he added with a smile.

"Blaine, you should have said something!" chastised Kurt. "I'm sure Finn or Puck would have loaned you a pair that would have fit just fine." Kurt was fairly disappointed. Not only was Blaine just going to sit around like a lump while everyone else was enjoying themselves, but he was going to be keeping his shirt on the whole time! That just would not do.

But Blaine just waved away the offer. "I'm not much of a swimmer anyway. I'm just here to spend time with you," he said sweetly, giving Kurt a soft kiss on the lips.

Okay, Kurt supposed he could forgive him just this once. "I'll sit here and keep you company, then," he offered, playfully bumping shoulders with the other boy. He'd just have to be patient to see some of his boyfriend's skin.

Little did Kurt know that he would have to wait quite some time for that desire to finally be met. It seemed that every time there was an appropriate opportunity to be shirtless, Blaine avoided it. There had been another couple of pool parties throughout June and, even when Kurt managed to get Blaine into swim trunks, he kept his shirt on in the water.

"I burn real easily," he'd said.

"That's why they invented sunscreen," Kurt had countered. "And this is the best stuff. It's the only brand I use. I promise you won't get burned."

But still Blaine had refused and Kurt wasn't going to push it. Maybe he was just shy about taking his shirt off in front of so many other people. Kurt had kept his own shirt on during those occasions, deciding that the first time they were shirtless should be a more intimate and private moment.

Halfway through July, Kurt had been hanging out at Blaine's house when his parents had to run a couple errands. Needless to say, the two boys were on each other as soon as their car had pulled away. While their make-out sessions were getting progressively steamier the longer their relationship lasted, it was still never like the ones in the movies where there were animal noises and hair pulling. They were still fairly tender with each other, and while Kurt wasn't going to argue (they were both romantics at heart, after all, preferring the subtle and sensual over the lust and aggression), he was eager to try new things.

As they were busy on the couch, Kurt's hands started to fiddle with the hem of Blaine's shirt, gingerly brushing the skin above his waist. It was electrifying, and Kurt was a little disappointed when Blaine pulled back and gently pushed Kurt's fingers away.

"Sorry, I'm just… not ready for that yet," breathed Blaine, looking apologetically into Kurt's eyes.

Kurt shook his head and smiled. "No, it's okay. I don't want to push you into something you're not ready for. I just want to touch you so badly," he said quietly, giving Blaine a soft kiss.

Kurt's need for touch was satisfied one night in August. Blaine had surprised Kurt with an evening picnic dinner at a nature park. They sat there together and cuddled contentedly while the sunset. Once it was dark, the entire field glistened with fireflies.

"It's so beautiful here, Blaine," whispered Kurt as they sat there in the darkness, just watching the free light show. It was a new moon that night, so there was absolutely no other light in the area besides the fireflies.

"I found this place while hiking once my sophomore year and thought you'd like it," said Blaine just as quietly, sounding proud of himself for making his boyfriend so happy.

"I do, I really do." Kurt turned to Blaine and kissed him on the cheek. "I wish we could just stay here forever."

Blaine returned his kiss, and it wasn't long before the two were lying on the blanket, fumbling around in the darkness. This time it was Blaine's fingers that started to snake their way under Kurt's shirt. Kurt didn't protest in the least. In fact, he sat up and slowly pulled his shirt over his head, letting it fall onto the blanket next to him. While he couldn't quite see Blaine's reaction, he definitely heard his intake of breath. It gave Kurt a self-esteem boost to know that he could have that sort of effect on his boyfriend. He sat there proudly for a moment before Blaine's hands were on him, delicately roaming over his bare stomach and chest. The touch was intoxicating and he let out some sort of noise that, upon later reflection, was mildly embarrassing.

After a few moments, Kurt fingered the bottom of Blaine's shirt, silently asking permission. Blaine tensed for just a brief second before complying, removing his own shirt and tossing it aside. Kurt wished there was at least a moon out so that he could actually _see _this! He could only make out dim shadows but, as he went to finally touch his boyfriend's chest, he decided that the lack of one sense made the others that much more intense. His fingers tingled as they lightly danced across Blaine's skin. Their lips locked as they each continued touching.

Kurt's fingers trailed across Blaine's chest, down his abdomen, across his waist and around his back. He was toned, but not overly muscled. It was perfect. His sensitive fingers traveled back across Blaine's stomach and he felt the slightly raised skin of scar tissue. Wanting to memorize everything about his boyfriend's boy, Kurt let his fingers trace over the line of the scar. After a moment, he realized that it wasn't a typical scar that a person normally gets from a childhood accident or a surgery. It had a more defined shape, like letters. Kurt felt what seemed to be an F followed by an A and then a G…

Blaine realized what Kurt was doing and quickly reached down to grab his hand. "Kurt…" he said, practically out of breath. "Please don't."

But this time Kurt wasn't going to back down. "Blaine, why… why do you have that word written into your stomach?" he asked, immediately concerned. "Who did that to you?" He tried to find Blaine's eyes but it was near impossible in the darkness. He gently cupped Blaine's face in his hands. "Please tell me."

"It's embarrassing, I don't really want to talk about it," he muttered, pulling out of Kurt's grip and feeling around for his shirt. Once he found it he hastily pulled it on over his head and then started clumsily packing up the supplies from their dinner.

Kurt followed suit and put his shirt back on as well. He stayed quiet for a moment, wondering if he should press the matter. "Please, Blaine, why can't you tell me? I love you, you know that, right? I love you and I don't want to see you this upset. What happened? Who did that to you?"

Blaine paused and they sat in silence for a moment. Kurt waited, unconsciously holding his breath until Blaine finally spoke.

"I did it."

Kurt thought he had heard incorrectly. He was about to ask for clarification when Blaine continued.

"It was when I was in middle school. I was figuring out who I was, and a lot of the other students also seemed to notice. They tormented and bullied me and that was the first time I ever heard that word. And it was used at me." Kurt scooted closer, feeling heartbroken as Blaine recounted his story. "They joked about branding me so that everyone would know what a piece of scum I was. Some of them convinced me that things would be easier if just went ahead and tattooed it across my forehead." Blaine snorted and shook his head at the memory. "I was scared and impressionable. I thought that if I just admitted to myself and to the world what I really was, then the bullying would stop. I was too young for tattoos, obviously, so I went for the next best thing. I really thought that it would fix everything. But when the guys caught sight of it in the locker room it only made things worse. And high school didn't get any better. So I transferred to Dalton. Between the zero-tolerance policy and the fact that no one knew about my scar, things got infinitely better."

Kurt reached out and wrapped his arms around Blaine, comforting him. He knew what it was like to be teased and ridiculed each and every day, to have the bullying reach a point where you believed everything they said about you. If so many people said it and agreed, it had to be true, right? It had taken Kurt until very recently to be strong enough to ignore the taunts and jeers.

"Middle school was the hardest for me, too," confided Kurt. "A group of jocks threw pee balloons at me once. And they nailed my lawn furniture to my roof."

"Pee balloons?" clarified Blaine, turning to look at Kurt.

Kurt gave a little shrug. "Finn and Puck have both apologized." They were both silent again, Blaine leaning against Kurt as the other boy held him close. But Kurt had to ask an important question. "You don't think that about yourself anymore, do you?"

"That I'm a fag? No, I don't," replied Blaine honestly. "It's mostly just an embarrassing reminder of how stupid I used to be. And things tend to get awkward whenever anyone else sees it, which is why I stopped going swimming."

"You weren't stupid," said Kurt. "You were young. There's a difference." Blaine simply shrugged at that comment, not entirely buying it. Kurt nestled his head onto Blaine's shoulder and continued speaking. "I suppose you could look at it as a reminder of how far you've come. How much stronger you've gotten and how much more confidence you have in yourself. That's the one thing that I really admired about you when we first met. You were so strong and sure of yourself. And you still are. It's what makes me love you so much." Kurt proved that statement with a tender kiss on the lips, which Blaine returned.

The two of them sat there in silence, comforted in each other's arms while they watched the fireflies continue to dance across the field. It was peaceful. But it had to eventually come to an end. Blaine was the first one to move and check his cell phone for the time. "We should probably head out so that we don't miss our curfews."

Kurt only whined a little bit before getting up and helping Blaine pack up their things. They used their cell phones for light as they fumbled around in the dark. Once the blanket had been folded and placed in Blaine's car, Kurt wrapped his arms around him. "You know I love you, right?"

Blaine smiled and nodded. "I love you too, Kurt. So much."

"And you know that that scar doesn't make me love you any less, right? I think it even makes me love you more. It just proves how strong and confident you are. And I love that about you," he said with a smile and a kiss.

"Thank you," breathed Blaine, giving Kurt a tender kiss. "For everything."

"You're welcome."

At the end of the summer, there was one last pool party. Blaine worked up the courage to take off his shirt and was surprised when absolutely no one made any comment on his scar. He supposed Kurt may have had something to do with that, and he didn't really mind. The only thing he cared about now was getting to rub sunscreen on Kurt's back.


End file.
